Caribbean Area Plant Materials Initiative

Updated April 04, 2013

We develop plant materials and plant technology for the conservation of the Caribbean Area's natural resources.

Resource Issues Addressed:

• Develop cover crops, vegetative barriers, and windbreaks for controlling erosion on cropland.
• Develop improved plants for wildlife food and cover.
• Establishing vegetation after natural disasters.
• Utilize plants in disturbed areas, such as construction sites.
• Establishing vegetative strips to improve water quality along waterways.
• Utilize native plants for ecosystem diversity.

Conservation Needs for which Plant Materials & Technology Are Being Developed:

• Plant establishment techniques and vegetative systems to improve surface and ground water quality.
• Cover crops for highly erodible cropland.
• Vegetative barriers and windbreaks for wind erosion control on cropland.
• Plants and establishment techniques to provide wildlife habitat; stabilize the waterline and upper slopes of ditches, channels, ponds, reservoirs, and small perennial and intermittent streams; and improve water quality with filter strips, buffer strips, and bioengineering.
• Native and introduced plants to improve pasturelands, control noxious weeds, and to stabilize critically eroding areas such as construction sites, road slopes, mine spoils, timber harvest areas, and recreational areas.
• Improved seed mixes and techniques for use after natural disasters in both rural and urban interface areas to control soil erosion.

Area Description

LOCATION: 1,000 miles (1 ,600 kilometers) southeast of Miami; 3 3/4 hours by plane from Atlanta and New York, 4 hours from Boston and 2 1/2 hours from Miami.

SIZE: Approximately 100 by 35 miles (160 by 56 kilometers), roughly the size of Connecticut.

CLIMATE: Tropical; annual temperatures average 82°F  (28°C) with constant easterly trade winds.  The U.S. Weather Bureau has never measured temperatures in San Juan below 70°F or higher than 97°F, 365 days a year, day or night.

The area served by the Caribbean Area Plant Materials Initiative is uniquely characterized by having a very complex pattern of about 195 soils. The topography is characterized by valleys, rolling foothills, and rugged mountains. Elevation extremes are from 20 feet below sea level to 4,390 feet above sea level. Agriculture is extremely diversified, including tropical fruits and vegetables, extensive livestock production from native and improved pastures.

Please follow one of the links below for additional information. Some of this information requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• Guide to Common Weeds of Puerto Rico & the U.S. Virgin Islands - NEW!
• Shade Coffee Factsheet (PDF, 385 KB); Hoja Informative de Café Sombra (PDF, 367 KB) - December 2012 - NEW!
• Saltflat Vegetation for Soil and Wildlife Conservation Associated with Coastal Tidal Flats - August 2012 (PDF, 869 KB) - NEW!
• Caribbean Area Plant Materials Program Long Range Plan 2009-2013 (PDF, 1.3 MB)
• Illustrated Grass Guide (Spanish Version Only)
• La Importancia de los Bosques en Puerto Rico (Spanish Version Only)
• Legumes (Spanish Version Only)
• Local Plant Materials for Soil Bioengineering
• Toxic Plants (Spanish Version Only)
• National NRCS Plant Materials Program
• PLANTS Database
• Recent Plant Material Program News

For additional information related to plants, please contact Edwin Más at 787-831-3101 or 3102 x. 106.

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